Can Ronson rise again?

BY luck or design, Gerald Ronson has never been a man destined for the quiet life. But the coming fortnight could prove momentous, even by the standards of his rollercoaster career.

The controversial businessman is again fighting to salvage his reputation as he goes back to the Court of Appeal in the latest twist of the 15-year-old Guinness scandal.

Just over a mile away at Guildhall, he is battling to win planning approval for his most ambitious project - a 37-storey City skyscraper. An associate said: 'He believes in it strongly. He has a personal interest in making it happen.' If he gets a green light, Ronson's spiked tower will become the second-highest building in the City after the nearby NatWest tower.

Yet, it will be for his involvement in the Guinness affair that Ronson, 62, is best remembered. He spent six months in Ford open prison, West Sussex, for his part in an illegal share-support operation during the 1986 takeover battle for Distillers - one of the most devastating post-war City scandals.

During that period, he entrusted the running of the company to his wife, Gail, a former model. In the 10 years since his release, Ronson's business empire has gone from the brink of collapse to robust health. Heron International is now one of Europe's leading leisure scheme developers. The company's property portfolio is worth about £454m in the UK and another £229m on the Continent.

Since its foundation, Heron has either invested in or developed more than one million square metres of commercial property - equal to eight Canary Wharf towers - as well as 15,000 residential units worldwide.

A week on Monday, Ronson, along with his fellow Guinness defendants, will go to the Appeal Court in an attempt to have their convictions overturned. The four - Ronson, Ernest Saunders, Jack Lyons and Anthony Parnes - were given leave to appeal after the European Court of Human Rights ruled that they were denied a fair hearing by being deprived of the right not to incriminate themselves.

It will be up to the appeal judges to decide whether the verdicts should be overturned, but tonight the director of the Serious Fraud Office, Rosalind Wright, will go on television to defend the 1990 convictions and rebut suggestions that they were obtained unfairly.

Meanwhile Heron, of which Ronson is both chief executive and 5% shareholder, is embroiled in one of London's biggest-ever planning inquiries over the proposed Heron Tower. An application to redevelop the site at 110 Bishopsgate was submitted in September last year and permission was granted by the Corporation of London in January. But an outcry by English Heritage sparked a fresh inquiry by planning inspector Neil Holt and this has been running for the past five weeks in a dusty backroom at Guildhall. After the inquiry this week, Holt will make his recommendations to Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions. Heron is strongly tipped to win, which will pave the way for more Square Mile skyscrapers. Adam Coffer, news editor of Estates Gazette, said: 'It is not overplaying it to say that this will decide the future of the City.'

Heron Tower has attracted strong support from the likes of London Mayor Ken Livingstone and architect Lord Rogers.

But Ronson has never been short of friends in high places. A few years after he left prison, the property crash in America had brought Heron to the brink of collapse. Rupert Murdoch, Bill Gates and Oracle's Larry Ellison were among the big names who rallied round to keep Heron afloat.

Now Ronson is regarded as one of the biggest names in property.

However, he has shed many of the trappings of wealth - the 186ft yacht, jet and fleet of cars once kept at his £5m mansion in East Finchley, north-west London - and dedicates himself to building up his company.

A friend said: 'He takes meticulous care of everything - if one square foot of property isn't let, he'll go mad with the agent. To him, £1 is the same as £1m.'

If the two verdicts go Ronson's way, his reputation will be restored and his company will be firmly on the map as well as London's skyline. But one observer commented: 'He doesn't see it as his way of getting back in the City - it's just a way of doing business. But it is clearly a big adventure for him.'

Heron's motto is Always Entertaining - an epithet as easily applied to its boss.